No More Dawn

Visual Sequencing Narrative | Creative Writing + Digital Illustration

2023

Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator

In a world where the sun mysteriously vanishes, one man’s routine walk home becomes the start of a surreal descent into chaos. As nature twists and the city spirals into panic, he’s forced to navigate a crumbling reality with no light, no contact, and no answers. Isolated and lost in a frozen landscape, he scavenges to survive – haunted by silence, shadows, and the eerie absence of morning. No More Dawn is an atmospheric journey through fear, loneliness, and the unraveling of the familiar, capturing the quiet terror of a world where day never comes. It is an artistic and experimental take on picture books.

Mood Mapping

Every project begins with deep research and visual exploration. In this case, I carefully curated 15 royalty-free images, sequenced to reflect the project’s core aesthetic, emotional tone, and color palette. It serves as a visual roadmap, setting the mood and guiding the creative direction from concept to execution.

Type Studies

The typography was selected to capture the stark, uneasy tone of the dystopian world in my written narrative The bold, geometric fonts bring a sense of order and control, while monospaced and typewriter-style typefaces add a mechanical, utilitarian feel – echoing ideas of isolation and surveillance. The contrast between clean and distressed type mirrors the tension throughout the story, helping to visually express a world unraveling, where structure is fading and collapse feels inevitable.

Tone & Intuition

I selected a stark and minimal color palette to support the story’s dystopian tone and futuristic setting – centered around the concept of the sun vanishing. The deep black and crisp white create a high-contrast, almost clinical atmosphere, evoking emptiness and the absence of light. The desaturated navy adds a cold, technological edge, while the burnt orange acts as a fading echo of warmth and humanity. It is subtle but symbolic of the missing sun. Together, these colors reinforce the emotional gravity of the narrative.

Finer Details

As part of the visual development for this project, I created a series of custom vector illustrations derived from select royalty-free images used in my book. These silhouettes, ranging from figures and streetlamps to industrial towers and radios, help reinforce the stark and dystopian tone of the narrative. By stripping the imagery down to minimal black-and-white forms, the illustrations mirror the story’s themes of isolation, surveillance, and vanishing light, while also maintaining a cohesive, futuristic visual language throughout the design.

Final Form

The final book design brings together all elements of the concept in a cohesive and visually striking format. Using a horizontal layout, the book emphasizes a cinematic flow that mirrors the eerie pacing of the narrative. The minimalistic color palette, custom vector illustrations, and sci-fi-inspired typography work in unison to create a clean yet unsettling atmosphere. Burnt orange accents punctuate the otherwise monochromatic pages, symbolizing the last remnants of sunlight. Every design decision was made to reflect the story’s central theme: a world grappling with the absence of the sun.